I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot for this week, but couldn't find a huge tractor tyre with big tread, so ended up with this last minute desperation shot.

There's not much tread left on these boots now. They have been brilliant and I've had them for years, but sadly they are at the end of their life. :(

In other news, today turned out odder than expected. The woman who normally hosts our local Quaker meeting has just had a hip replacement and though she's recovering well, she still needs to rest so we met at my elderly friends' house instead. As it was a lovely morning, I decided to walk and get a bit of extra exercise.

After meeting, I walked back down into town with Liam, an Irish chap who attends when he's staying in the area. As it was nice, he said he'd walk a little further and I decided that rather than walk through town, I'd walk with him around the path that runs alongside the river. The town route is a little shorter, but involves climbing a steep hill whereas the river walk is longer but flatter. We were back on the road, literally within sight of our house, when some neighbours appeared, accompanied by a big black dog.

"Do you recognise this dog," they asked. Neither of us did. "He's followed us all the way along the trail," they said and we couldn't make him go back.

We looked at the dog. It was big, friendly and black, with curly hair. He was wearing a collar with a tag that said, rather unhelpfully, "scan me."

"We'd better take him to the police station," I said.

The neighbours had a small child with them, so I volunteered to take the dog. Fortunately, I was wearing a belt which I could use as an improvised lead, so Liam, dog and I set off back over the footbridge and along the road to the police station, which turned out to be completely deserted. Why do problems always occur on a Sunday?

There was one of those speaker things with a button saying press. I pressed the button and a distorted voice said something.

"Hello, I said. "We have a stray dog here."

The distorted voice said something I couldn't catch.

"Sorry, you're breaking up," I said.

"You need the dog warden," the voice said, a little more clearly.

"I don't know the number of the dog warden," I replied.

Silence from the other end.

Liam and I waited in the hope that a number would be forthcoming.

Silence.

Then I saw a sign on the window saying "stray dogs" and a phone number. I tried the phone number but only got a message saying that no one was on duty before being put through to the council switchboard. I attempted to negotiate the computer menu and pressed 3, which I thought was the right number, but ended up talking to someone from Welsh Water. I apologised and hung up.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place and took the dog along to the vet's surgery. I was fully expecting that it would be closed and that I'd have to phone someone to get either the dog warden's number or for one of the staff to come to help, but it was open! A very helpful young woman invited us in and a young man scanned the dog and discovered that it lived in town. So that explained why the neighbours hadn't been able to send it back, it was trying to return home!

Thankfully, all the details were up to date and the young man phoned the owner. "Have you lost Coda?" he asked. The person at the other end must have said no because the young man then said, "Well, you have lost Coda because he's here."

So the story had a happy ending and I managed to get home only an hour late with the dog safely left in the care of the vet.

It would have been so much easier if the owners had included a phone number on the tag instead of just the words "scan me". However, I now know that if I ever want to go on a crime spree, Sunday is the day to do it. No police in town at all!

It would have been so much easier if the owners had included a phone number on the tag instead of just the words "scan me". However, I now know that if I ever want to go on a crime spree, Sunday is the day to do it. No police in town at all!

I'm so glad your quest was successful and there was a happy ending. Lucky that the vets were open because it sounds like officialdom was a complete waste of time here...

The people who run the dog training class Max and I attended told us that it's a legal requirement to have the owner's name, address and phone number on a tag on the collar. I always try to comply, though Max's habit of bouncing through the heather takes quite a toll on his ID tags.

Yes, I though you were supposed to have something more helpful than "scan me". If they'd had a phone number they could have been contacted immediately rather than me having to traipse all around town trying to find someone with a scanner.